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4/22/2010

100 Better Budget Repairs for Schools

It’s about money. Give me pragmatic solutions not pedagogic policy. Please take a minute to explain a problem or duplication and suggest a cheaper leaner better way in the comments box.

I am a Mom and a businesswoman. I am not running for office. We can save the right way. Cutting teacher salaries is not the correct path. We need concrete methods to reduce waste to bring to our Governor and State Board and Districts

Leave aside Unions and other elements of the education establishment. Be thick skinned. Allow those who are going to be hostile to input to open their hearts and make California education better.

Obama administration’s Race to the Top education improvement grants did nothing.

100 things in California’s education system which need to be made efficient:

First one: E.L. policies Assembly Bill 748 requires testing to measure ELD standards applied appropriately for students in each grade level. The Bill hoped to standardize English language arts content to ensure that limited-English proficient (LEP) students (now politically correctly renamed English learners in California) develop proficiency in English. The standards are supposed to assist teachers in moving English learners to fluency. The California English Language Development Test (CELDT) is a required state test for English language proficiency that must be given.

This is a behemoth of waste. The information gathering and testing forms change all the time. They are often outdated at the school site and expensive bar code forms tossed away. Some teachers might have 1 EL student a year and in another area they might have 12 or more. The teacher may score the student low on purpose in the start up to show improvement. There are special coordinators in each district. There are special employees to track the progress. Thousands of phone calls, hours of training. The teachers score a child on a scale that is vague and subjective. This is a paperwork monster. When the results finally return to the teacher so much time has gone by the teacher is already working with the child to get up to speed. The tools are broken.